text: Blanco was raised in Venezuela by her mother, Maria Eugenia Blanco.
  She credits her resiliency and motivation, in part, to her Venezuelan upbringing stating: "...Venezuelans are always incredibly optimistic. They focus on what is going right. They laugh at the things that are not going so well."
  Blanco credits a science experiment she witnessed during her preschool class as being the source of her initial inspiration to become a scientist.
  She currently lives in Temple, Texas.